Rather than a screen accessory plugging into a laptop, this is what I got a Samsung Galaxy Tab A With S-Pen for. Retails for about $250 USD, it's an Android tablet that also comes with an integrated active pen, like the Note series of phones. You can share your drawings / writing with your laptop using Dropbox etc, at a fraction of the price of the Pencil-compatible iPads.

[I think you've been downvoted unfairly - although I think the Surface drawing capabilities are excellent & superior, they might be overkill for some use cases.]

It's also instant access. It's just there, always running, always immediately ready.

I've found they're extremely fragile though. I can't imagine it would hold up in a backpack, without a hard cover.

What experience do you have with using Microsoft products and resultant mental health issues? I'm guessing none, and it's just another throw-away remark that is anti-Microsoft, ignorant of the interesting and - in my experience at least - pro-good-mental health work they've been doing recently.

I used to dislike Microsoft till recently. After using OneNote (on Wine) and their keyboard (Natural 4000) I am now a fan.

I switched from Windows to Linux in 2001, from Linux to Mac in 2004, and from Mac to Windows in 2016.

The Surface is a great machine and Windows 10 is a good OS.